Pre-Hire Testing, Assessment Continues to Gain
Favor

A news release from the AberdeenGroup, a Boston-based
technology consultant, said its 2005 survey found that 58%
of companies are already using pre-hiring testing and
assessment, while another 14% plan to go that route within
12 months. A quarter of the responding firms don’t employ
the hiring technique while 3% said they used to do so, but
don’t currently.

Aberdeen’s new report, “Pre-Employment Testing and
Assessment: The State of the Art,” indicated that testing
for higher-level corporate management will increase as
companies try to hold down the risk and expense incurred
when senior executives don’t work out.

While hiring managers are turning to pre-employment
assessment to pinpoint lower-level candidates who fit best
into the company’s corporate culture and are most likely to
stay in the job, companies are also using online assessment
products to help bring on the best senior managers,
according to Aberdeen.

“Testing, as part of the hiring process, is a growing
phenomenon as companies try to avoid negligence in hiring
on the one hand and, on the other, improve their talent
pools with productive workers who will stay,” Aberdeen
researchers wrote in their report. “The largest area of
assessment growth is anticipated for professionals, new
college hires, and middle-level managers.”

The rapid growth of computer technology in general and
Web-based tools in particular also contribute to this
trend, the report said.

Responding managers planning to start pre-hiring
assessments included 19% when hiring professional-level
workers, 14% hiring mid-level managers and 14% hiring
candidates right out of college, according to the Aberdeen
report.

Key findings include:

a bulk of the respondents – 52% – believe
pre-employment assessment distinguishes poor from good
hires, and helps identify candidates who will stay on
the job longer

the 60% of respondents who don’t use
pre-employment testing cited insufficient awareness of
the use of pre-hire assessment technology as the
predominant reason.

“The inability to compete for talent is an ongoing
concern across companies of all sizes,” the Aberdeen
researchers wrote. “Changes in labor force demographics and
the far-flung nature of a global workforce cause those
charged with long-term workforce planning to lose sleep at
night. Increasingly, a company will only be as good as the
people it hires – and retains. The increasingly mobile
workforce and the shortage of highly skilled employees in
certain fields leave companies as concerned about
tomorrow’s workforce as they are about today’s short-term
acquisition of talent.”